Taylor Swift's fans knew the roads were trouble when they drove out.
In a rare public rebuke, MetLife Stadium officials called out the state Department of Transportation for a construction mix-up Saturday night that led to blocked lanes on Route 3 as fans of the pop superstar tried to make their way home.
"We apologize for any frustration you experienced on Saturday night and, please know, we were just as frustrated," stadium officials wrote in an email sent today to concert patrons.
"The New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) scheduled an unplanned construction project westbound on Route 3 at the Passaic River Bridge. Due to a miscommunication between the NJDOT and their contractor, the project went underway at 10:30 PM on the 13th and the reduction in lanes caused major congestion on the entire stadium site which affected all points of egress, including those not using Route 3."
An apologetic DOT spokesman said the construction work initially was supposed to be done Friday night, but was delayed by rain.
Joe Dee said the DOT normally tries to coordinate with MetLife Stadium officials to minimize inconvenience to patrons.
"We're looking at that internally," he said. "Could we have adjusted the time that started to better accommodate the fans at that concert? We have been reviewing that, to make sure that doesn't happen again. ... When we ended up closing the lanes, it was not the optimal time to do so."
He said the DOT reached out to MetLife officials and vowed to coordinate with them to ensure those types of delays don't occur again.
Swift, one of America's most popular music acts, attracted 55,000 fans on her Red Tour stop at the football stadium that houses the Giants and Jets.
In a move that turned out to be prescient, 5,300 people avoided traffic jams by taking special NJ Transit Meadowlands trains between Hoboken and Secaucus and the stadium.
The DOT is in the midst of a project to replace the Route 3 drawbridge over the Passaic River with a stationary bridge, and build full shoulders, acceleration and deceleration lanes and noise barriers between Main Avenue in Clifton and the Route 17 exit in Lyndhurst and Rutherford, officials said.
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